Epilogue Summary

In the Epilogue the authors state that their particular style of economics is concerned with thinking sensibly about how the world really works as opposed to how people think it does or should work. They tell the reader that although applying Freakonomics may not dramatically improve the reader's life, it may at least result in the reader putting a better gate around his swimming pool or motivating his real estate agent to work harder. It may have an even subtler effect of making the reader more skeptical of conventional wisdom, looking for signs that things may not be what they first appear to be. Perhaps it will motivate the reader to search out data and come up with a new idea. Some of these ideas, such as the abortion/crime link, might make the reader uncomfortable. However, the authors again state that their...